Tyler Clippard had just earned his first major-league victory when a call came for him on the cell phone of a Yankees staff member. Clippard, 22, was in the visitors' clubhouse at Shea Stadium, and the pitcher with more victories than anyone alive wanted to talk to him. Roger Clemens was on the line.

"He called to congratulate me, which was unbelievable," Clippard said. "He seemed like such a nice guy. He said he really wanted to work with the young guys, which is something I'm definitely looking forward to."

The Yankees are looking forward to the whole package Clemens offers: the outsized gunslinger who sees himself as part coach and part motivational speaker, beyond his role as a $28 million ace.

Clemens is scheduled to start today against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Yankee Stadium, his first game for the Yankees since the 2003 World Series. It is an eagerly awaited debut from a performer who knows how to make a grand entrance, introducing himself to the stadium crowd from the owner's box above home plate on May 6.

"He's probably going to be sky-high on Saturday, anyway," manager Joe Torre said. But with the Yankees playing better lately, Torre added, "He can fall in line and be one of the guys as opposed to being the one guy to maybe change things and turn things around. Because I don't care how long you've been playing, it's still a lot to put on one guy."

Clemens will earn about $17.4 million from the Yankees, based on the prorated portion of his salary. He has been teammates with six current Yankees, and a curiosity to the others.

Derek Jeter stayed in touch during Clemens' three seasons with the Astros and hounded him to return. Jeter came to regard Clemens as a friend, something he never expected when Clemens pitched for Boston and Toronto.

"I like him," Jeter said. "I didn't like him when I played against him -- not at all."

Yankees first baseman Josh Phelps knows the feeling. On Aug. 29, 2002, when Phelps was a rookie for the Toronto Blue Jays, he hit two home runs to beat Clemens at the Skydome. The next season, on opening day in Toronto, Phelps came up against Clemens in the first inning with two on and two out.

It did not occur to Phelps that Clemens would still be thinking about those home runs from seven months before. But Clemens drilled him in the back, then struck out Eric Hinske to end the inning.

"I was surprised, more than anything else," Phelps said. "If he held onto it for that long, maybe it was a sign of respect. I never asked him about it. I don't get into that."

Clemens is joining a rotation that included two former teammates -- Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina -- plus Clippard and Chien-Ming Wang, who is pitching like a No. 1 starter again, with a 4-1 record and a 2.50 earned run average over his past five starts.

When Wang was growing up in Taiwan, he said, few baseball games were shown on television. But Wang was a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, and he knew who Clemens was. He was the pitcher Wang wanted to be.

Asked what he admired about Clemens, Wang thought for a bit and tried to explain. "He trusts himself," said Wang, whose English is limited. He struggled to find more words, and then tapped his chest, for emphasis.

Wang has never met Clemens, somehow missing his appearances at Legends Field in March and at Yankee Stadium in May. But Wang, who has been trying to diversify his repertory, said he wanted to ask Clemens how to throw a splitter.

Tony Pena, the Yankees' first-base coach, was Clemens' catcher in Boston from 1990 through 1993, a period that included Clemens' third Cy Young award season, in 1991, and the year Clemens has said he considered the best of his career, 1990, when he went 21-6 with a 1.93 ERA.

"He's a winner in everything he does," Pena said. "When he's pitching, it's him against everybody. He's the type of guy, he promises himself that when he does bad, he needs to do extra work to correct that. He's a warrior."